Let's Make a Cozy Indie Folk Song! | "The Fall" 

That’s too kind, thank you so much!

Thanks! I'll tell Dr. Grey to put me on the soundtrack to her life

Thank you so much Cole!

Thank you so much!

That's so kind! Don't watch any other of my videos because you may not get that same result 😳 lmfao

@@TrevBarnes I reckon I will have to do that regarless haha

That’s very kind of you Robert! Thank you so much

You’re too kind, thank you so much!

That means the world to me, thank you so much!

Thank you so much!

That’s so kind, thank you!

That means the world to me, thank you!

You’re too kind, thank you!

Thank YOU!

That’s too kind, thank you!

I really appreciate it, thank you so much!

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much!

That means so much to hear, thanks!

That's too kind of you, thank you!

Thank you so much!

Thanks a ton!

Thanks Steve!

Thank you!

Thank you so much!

Thank you!

Thank you! I don’t remember specifically what reverb I used in this video, but my two “go to” reverbs are Logic’s Space Designer and Liquidsonic’s Lustros Plates. A lot of people forget to EQ the reverb, a lot of the sweet spots are in the mid frequencies. Remember not to overuse it as well, sometimes it sounds cool to drench a mix in reverb, but reverb fills more space than we realize. Just experiment and stay curious about mixing, that’s the best way to learn!

I’ll have to finish it and upload it!

Thank you!

Thank you! If you need any additional advice for this style I’m always happy to help! Another video in this style is currently in the pipeline and will be out soon

Thank you so much!

Thanks! I have two recommendations for muddiness that fixes my problems 99% of the time. 1, listen to a reference mix, always. Many times (myself included) I feel as though my mixes lack a low end presence, but when I listen to other references through my monitors I find theres actually a lot that I can cut. 2, mix in mono. Before you mix, go ahead and pan how you'd want everything to be. Then, put the stereo out in mono, level everything to balance clarity, and then put it back in stereo. The 2nd one is the biggest game changer that made a difference in my mixing.

@@TrevBarnes Awesome and thanks for the detailed response! I think you’re right that the low end can be the issue with muddiness. I struggle with bass guitar in particular. It’s still far from perfect but I’ve felt overall my mixes have been better once I put a high pass filter on my stereo out channel that cuts at like 20-25hz. I know that essentially the secret is to get the different instruments to live in their own frequency space and I got Voxengo Span, but still definitely don’t have the ear for where to cut, where to add, etc. I saw that mono trick in another one of your videos and I’ve heard that before. Really good tip. It looks like you added a gain utility on the stereo out and set it to mono and that just changes the whole mix to mono?

@@curtisbrause9255 yep! Theres a little mono option on the plugin, so I try treat the on/off as my “mono” switch if that makes sense.

@@TrevBarnes I just tried this out yesterday and it works! Very good tip. When I’m done with this next song and am ready to mix I’m definitely going to use this.

@@curtisbrause9255 that’s awesome! I’m so glad to hear that

Btw do you have a spotify where i can listen to your music ?

Thank you so incredibly much! I used to have music but took most of it down. Some from my previous bands are still up, here: open.spotify.com/artist/0ziRjbSPtqVWftDnrtoUPI?si=aHSTQZkYQHCGlREEbuk5uA open.spotify.com/artist/03Ig7PwcaNLjhjlZ84Lbtq?si=Tyjw9Jx2QY26GdFHD9rhAQ

@@TrevBarnes Have you thought about doing something alone on your own, at the time you're creating to youtube? you are very talented

@@silveramateur571 absolutely. Working on something now. I’ve done solo stuff in the past but just ended up hating it. Most of the music I sent you was nearly all me as well. Stay tuned!

@@TrevBarnes thanks I’ll be waiting for what’s coming 🔥

You can do it!

Thanks!

My acoustic guitar processing is very minimal, 9/10 it’s just slight eq to control the highs and lows, and a 4:1 compressor dialed slightly. A lot of it is about mic placement, I try to get a great sound from the source first so I can do light processing. For midi drums, I honestly just learned what come wherever on the keyboard and got familiar with it. A lot of practice lol

@@TrevBarnes thanks for the reply. Yeah I get that abt the source. I’ve got a couple of great acoustics and a good mic so that’s ✅ I must say it’s always a challenge to appropriately understand / use compression. So I’ve been using presets and problem to much of it on voice and guitars haha As for the drums, I got a midi keyboard and I can play real drums a bit so it’s easy to play on keyboard, I was mostly curious abt the sounds / plugging you’re using or maybe direct to Logic

@@cozxmos sure thing, the main drum VST I go to is EZ Drummer 3, ESPECIALLY the tight room kit. Very great dead and punchy drums in that pack. I run everything multi-output so I can put post processing on each channel with slates virtual mix rack. Check out my video on “How to Make Indie Drums” on how I set that up, could be insightful

@@TrevBarnes appreciate it man! Ty ❤️

Thank! I’m working on more of them, they’re genuinely fun to do!

@@TrevBarnes you're pretty good at em too! Keep up the good work and you'll have a massive following in no time

Thank you so much! Everything I make is with Logic Pro X

Thank you!

Thank you so much!

I highly recommend the switch. Most DAWs do the same thing, but I've found Logic to be the most accessible, especially for the price. It really depends on what you're client wants when you export stems, I typically split every separate channel, so Kick, Snare, Toms, etc. It's all case by case scenario

@TrevBarnes Thanks for the advice I really appreciate it.

@@michaeladams6726 For sure!

My guitar was tuned a half step down, but the chords are: Capo 2nd fret, Fmaj, cmaj, Amin

Thank you! It was super simple. It’s been a while since I opened this project, so this may not be 100%, but I used Slate’s VMR for majority of the work. I used an 1176 style compressor that gently pushed the vocal, I added an eq to take the low end out at around 100hz, then I think I added an LA2A on the backend to push it a little. After that, it was just a short slap back delay, some plate reverb, and doubled vocals. I didn’t really do anything special to these vocals that I can remember, I typically go for a less is more approach

@@TrevBarnes Cool, thank you so much for the quick reply and all of the detail.

Absolutely lol

For this video I used a lumix G7. for my new videos I use my iPhone 15

Logic!

I'm using the Audio Technica AT2020, super cheap mic, but usually gets the job done

I don’t, at least not yet ;) The best kickback I get is knowing folks like you found resources that helped them

Of course, Yassin. For my amp EQ I turned my highs and lows down a good bit, and turned the mids up. I found to make a guitar cut really well through a lot of reverb, mid frequencies are very important. The reverb on the amp was cranked pretty good, but be careful because there is a very fine line to drowning out the tone. I would say experiment, experiment, experiment. The slide I’m using is for a dobro, and honestly too heavy for a guitar so I wouldn’t recommend using that. I think your glass slide would come in handy for this sound, metal slides tend to scrape the strings in an unpleasant way and glass slides tend to have a softer sound. A major tip that changed slide guitar for me was where you rest your hand before the slide finger. When I started, only the finger (that the slide was on) touched the neck of the guitar, so make sure the rest of your hand rests before the slide to dampen the strings and give better control. I hope this made sense, it’s kind of hard to explain this through text. If you have any mother questions don’t hesitate to reach out. Overall, have a good bit of amp drive, turn your highs down, be tasteful with your reverb, throw some light delay on the signal before the amp, and be open to stepping outside of your comfort zone!

@@TrevBarnes wow what a detailed answer! Thank you so much Trev. I'm only getting started with music production and get stuck sometimes. I will try to do what you described and see how it goes! I love how Novo Amor or Noah Gundersen (in some of his new stuff) use this slide sound, its beautiful. Also thanks for the offer of reaching out if i have questions, your indie production videos hit a spot in what i aspire to make. Very rare to find that on youtube. Love from Germany, Yassin

Logic Pro

It’s for scientific purposes lol

Ahhh, gotcha! Thank you

Now you can sound like an old school hardware OG

@@davidguthrie3739 haha my lifelong dream!

Fun fact, my wife and I actually enjoyed some dough bros for take away and sat by the galway docks enjoy the sunset. One of my favorite memories of my life

@@TrevBarnes that is actually nuts! Jungian synchronicity at play lol 😂 Love the tunes man...keep going

So inspired by your song. I want to just reference your structure :) I love it 😀

Sure thing! The key is D#maj. Pretty much every chord has a 7th on it, so the chorus/verse chords are: G#maj7, D#maj7, C#min7 The prechorus is: A#maj, C#min7, G#maj7 Without the 7th they are pretty standard chords, the 7th is what makes things interesting. If you are ever stuck while writing, I recommend just turning some chords into 7ths and it’ll open a new world

Thanks!